Next Book Project?

Having published my most recent book prior to turning 40, some people have already began asking: “What will the next book be?” Although I do want to begin working on somewhat of a follow-up to this most recent book, that will most likely not be my next book project (but I will discuss that further).

Someone asked me this week if I would be writing a book on Jewish drinking and that is what the next one may be. While I composed weekly divrei Torah on the Torah portion for 17 Torah portions a couple of years ago, I am thinking about resuming that series this Torah reading-cycle, which I can then turn into a book in about a year from now.

Another possibility, that someone had asked me about this past spring is to compose a popular-oriented book on drinking in Jewish life. This would be focused on holidays and lifecycles primarily. For that work, I would have to start from scratch, but it’s doable.

Returning to what I had mentioned at the outset, having published a book of 30 essays on early rabbinic (Tannaitic) literature called Power at 30, drawing on Yehudah ben Tema’s age-based description of a man’s life, the next one would be something along the lines of Discernment at 40, which would be comprised of 40 essays on later rabbinic literature.

Fortunately, I have some essays I have written for Textual Insights that would work well for such a volume:

• ·       Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi’s Enactment in the Fields
• ·       Initial Considerations of Occurrences of Incidents in Which Rav Yehudah Quotes Rav and Shmuel
• ·       “The Host Breaks & the Guest Blesses”: An Investigation of the Babylonian Talmud’s Blessing of a Guest for One’s Meal Host
• ·       Two Significant Changes to Megillah-reading by Rabbi Yehoshua, son of Levi: Initial Considerations [Megillah 4a]
• ·       Drinking & Praying? How Do the Rabbis Approach Drunken Prayer?
• ·       Who Indirectly Quoted Rabbi Meir? [Megillah 12a]
• ·       Drinking on Purim [Megillah 7b]
• ·       Storing Beer in Jugs that Had Been Gentile-Owned [AZ 33b]
• ·       The Amoraic Prohibition Against Gentile Beer? [AZ 31b]

One piece that has been on my mind to write since 2006 is on Rabbi Zera’s reportage of Jewesses enstringing upon themselves, so that needs to happen (although I have posted a couple of little posts on this topic at Textual Insights here and here).

There are also few posts from Matters of Interest I am considering including in such a volume, as well (although they would need to be improved):

• ·       Sages and Doctors Face-Off: A First Consideration of a Story in the Talmud
• ·       Considering the Amoraic Midrashic Imagery of God Enclosing the Jews Beneath Mt. Sinai (Shabbat 88a)
• ·       Blessing for Different Wine

I clearly have a lot of researching and writing to go before that collection of essays is ready….

In the meantime, we shall see what I work on….